After AC Milan lost the ball, they pressed even harder.
San Remo was forced to retreat back into their own half, completely on the defensive.
At times like this, it often required Lu Yang’s wide-ranging runs to respond, and Canyes’ high-intensity quick ball control to advance.
But now, Lu Yang was in the front and Canyes was on the operating table.
San Remo could only play defense and counter-attack.
"Move up!"
Lu Yang gave a signal to Kane, the right-back behind him.
Kaint completed the interception and boldly carried the ball forward.
This was indeed one of his strengths.
His strong interception ability allowed him to launch a counter-attack immediately without needing the ball to go through others for distribution.
This was a step faster in speed.
The Milan midfielder tried to block Kaint, but Kaint had a good vision and passed the ball to Morici nearby.
Morici played a one-two pass with Kaint.
The Milan midfielder was a bit bewildered.
This little black player rushed up?
This was an unprecedented situation in the previous thirty minutes.
Kaint was playing right-back for the first time, playing conservatively and almost never advancing, obediently acting as a defensive specialist.
But now, he’s gone forward?
After changing shoes, Kaint actually showed significant improvement in passing and dribbling, and in terms of offensive capability in the fullback position, he was not as weak as everyone thought.
Moreover, Sotu had been developing Kaint’s ability on the flanks recently.
So Kaint’s forward move was very successful this time.
Kaint passed the ball to Lu Yang.
"Cut inside!" Lu Yang instructed Kaint to cut inside, while he continued dribbling forward to challenge Praxedes.
Praxedes had a stable position, giving Lu Yang no chance.
He almost intercepted the ball at Lu Yang’s feet.
Fortunately, Lu Yang relied on his speed and eruption to chase down the uncontrolled ball immediately and made a cross pass.
Kaint received the ball in the right-side area outside the penalty box.
AC Milan’s central defender Chaloba decisively rushed out to engage Kaint head-on.
Kaint tried to show off some trickery, pedaling a clumsy step over.
But Chaloba’s defense was quite steady.
Not to mention Kaint’s step-over moves were several levels below Giant and even more simplistic than the ancient Phoenix brand bicycles.
If Chaloba got tricked by such stepovers, there must be something wrong.
Seeing the assisting defender coming up,
The commentator inevitably sighed: "Oh! Kaint wasted the opportunity!"
"This player lacks the ability to break through and move forward. Even if the ball is at his feet, he can’t seize the opportunity."
"The one-on-one just now was his best chance; bypassing Chaloba would have immediately allowed passing and shooting freedom."
"What a pity! It’s such a pity!"
AC Milan’s defensive midfielder ran back to double up on Kaint.
However, although Kaint’s offense was not good enough, his ball protection was quite impressive, and the opponent couldn’t take the ball from him for a while.
This little guy’s physical confrontation ability was extremely strong, totally belonging to the black and tough category.
Bam!
In the end, Chaloba took the ball but unknowingly exerted more force exceeding the boundary of normal confrontation during the challenge.
Plus, with a tall player tackling a shorter one, it was easy to create an over-the-back foul posture.
So the main referee blew the whistle.
Chaloba committed a foul.
Kaint won a well-positioned free kick for San Remo.
On the right side of the area outside the penalty box.
Approximately twenty-five meters from the goal.
This was within Lu Yang’s elevator ball attacking range.
Chaloba protested to the main referee, claiming he didn’t commit a foul.
But the referee pointed to his eyes, indicating he saw it clearly.
You’re a big guy over 1.9 meters, bullying a little guy 1.68 meters, doesn’t your conscience hurt?
Chaloba looked at the sincere and honest Kaint, too angry to speak.
"Oh! It’s another free-kick! Will Lu Yang take the shot?" someone got excited, "Just now Coach Jun said that scoring twice from free kicks is the mark of a free-kick master. If Lu Yang tries again, he might just become the free-kick master in Coach Jun’s heart!"
Coach Jun’s face turned black.
Gosh!
Are free-kicks so easy to score?
"San Remo likes the element of surprise, which reflects their creativity and is also a result of their capability. When not strong enough, you must learn to be flexible; this has been San Remo’s path to success," Coach Jun said. "I think Morici will take this free-kick."
"Because Lu Yang knows it’s difficult to score twice consecutively on set-pieces. He will use his threat to create a better scoring chance for Morici. This is something Lu Yang does all the time."
"This is the best choice."
The tone suggested uncertainty about whether he was praising Lu Yang for being selfless or criticizing him for lacking the courage to go for a brace in free kicks.
Coach Jun was like this, never making definite statements so that if the situation changed, he could always adapt and never be at the mercy of public opinion.
But this was indeed the survival tip for domestic commentators.
The kind of unequivocal support for a player while maintaining commentary fairness – such football commentators did not yet have a survival ground here.
"I’ll do it." Lu Yang walked over to Morici once again.
Morici nodded but remained standing still, intending to provide a cover for Lu Yang.
Lu Yang didn’t refuse.
The distraction of a free-kick can sometimes be greatly helpful to scoring.
Morici set up the ball and started stepping back, while Lu Yang stood aside, also ready to take the shot.